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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals

The company showed the LiveSphere application running on an Android set-top box reference design based on the STMicroelectronics Cannes chipset, which supports 4K video. The dynamic selection of the field of view relies on a remote by 4MOD Technology.

Suddenlink Communications has signed up to use Rovi’s DTA guide for its subscribers that are using HD digital terminal adapters (DTAs.) The Rovi DTA Guide provides more digital-like features in viewers’ living rooms while freeing up bandwidth for more HD channels and faster broadband speeds.

Cisco was directly involved in the design and software integration of the Broadcom-based hybrid set-top box. Charter is using ActiveVideo’s Cloud TV platform, which renders the entire user experience server-side, including the EPG video thumbnails, and delivers it as an MPEG stream.

The combination of ProMedia Origin solutions with Microsoft PlayReady, can enable video content and service providers to distribute secure content to a wide range of devices via a single DRM technology. That can significantly reduce the time to market for while minimizing workflow complexity and points of failure.

Broadcom announced this morning at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that it was the first vendor to debut a DOCSIS 3.1-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) for cable operators. Cable operators have been frothing at the mouth for DOCSIS 3.1 gear and today’s announcement from Broadcom included executive quotes from the two largest cable operators in the world, Comcast and Liberty Global.

Ericsson has cut a deal to resell UXP Systems’ Mint Unified Services Platform. Mint is used to create profiles of customers, supporting a common user experience across all screens. The capabilities of the system then extend to personalizing the user experience for each customer.

One of the biggest changes in television this year will be more channels available online with no separate cable or satellite subscription. But for would-be cord-cutters, watching live sports online has been elusive — until now. Dish Network Corp. on Monday unveiled an Internet-only subscription offering that includes ESPN, the cable TV sports network.

At the International CES gadget show this week in Las Vegas, TV makers unveiled new models with 4K resolution, or four times the clarity offered by today's high definition TVs. They are pushing the features even though not a single TV channel is yet available in 4K. But Internet services such as Netflix, Amazon and M-Go are starting to offer 4K video.

Roku said it has produced a reference design it is licensing to TV manufacturers, who can begin development of Roku TV 4K models of their own. TCL is the first to announce it has licensed the design. Meanwhile Netflix will be the company's initial 4K content partner.

With the combination, NeuLion aims to give customers additional options for managing content, giving customers the choice of either building and managing digital video platforms internally or licensing an integrated managed services solution.

Time Warner Cable Sports partnered with IMS Productions on two proof-of-concept 4K tests last month. The first test of ultra-high-definition (UHDTV) broadcasting in 4K was a high school football game on Dec. 19 in California while the second took place during a Dec. 23 broadcast of the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Golden State Warriors at the Staples Center.

TiVo announced this morning that it had partnered with iHeartRadio to bring the streaming music service to its Roamio, Mini and Premiere devices. The DVR pioneer also announced it would roll out its “OnePass” feature next month. OnePass was designed to gather and track every episode of a TV series instantly across live or recorded TV, VOD and streaming apps.

By the numbers: Three-quarters of U.S. households have a DVR, or subscribe to Netflix, or use on-demand (VOD) from a cable or Telco provider. A full quarter of households use some combination of two of the services, and one-tenth use all three.

The New Year got off to a positive start with Charter Communications announcing on Thursday that it had reached a new carriage agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting Group. Charter said it had wrapped up the new retransmission agreement with Nexstar prior to the previous one expiring just before midnight on Dec. 31.

The FCC today started taking comments for the next report it will prepare on competition in the satellite market, and the cable industry responded promptly, again requesting that the FCC assess fees on DirecTV and Dish Network commensurate with the fees the FCC levies on every other MVPD.

Liberty Media and Liberty Interactive announced that their respective board of directors had reached agreements to keep Greg Maffei as their president and CEO through 2019. Maffei’s prior contract was close to expiring before the new deal was announced on Monday.

RCN is now offering its digital video customers live access to Disney and ABC networks at home or on-the-go via Watch Disney Channel, Watch Disney XD, Watch Disney Junior, Watch ABC Family and Watch ABC. The deal allows RCN’s authenticated subscribers to access the Disney Channel and ABC networks on their iOS and Android devices, as well as online by downloading the respective apps.

"The Interview" was put back into theaters Thursday when Sony Pictures Entertainment announced a limited theatrical release for the comedy that provoked an international incident with North Korea and outrage over its cancelled release. Sony also is continuing its efforts to release the film on more platforms and in more theaters.

TWC told the FCC that it had withheld the documents on an incorrect claim of attorney-client privilege, according to the agency. TWC should have turned over those documents in September, but did not until earlier this month (December). Furthermore, there are another 30,000 documents that were misplaced due to some unspecified vendor error.

The state is getting most of the money from Macquarie Capital. Macquarie has assemble a team including First Solutions, Fujitsu Network Communications, Black & Veatch, and Bowlin Group, to design, develop and operate the private/public network over the next 30 years.

Timeline Labs has built a content management platform that enables its customers to discover, curate and display geographically targeted news stories that are trending across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. SeaChange said it intends to expand the target audience to include multiscreen television service providers.

Now that the NPRM has been published, we can see the legal and policy problems that it will face. There are many. If OVDs are determined by the FCC to qualify as MVPDs, then it might give them certain program access rights. But MVPDs also face certain obligations. Will these same obligations apply to OVDs?

The question is coming up with increasing frequency, and cannot be ignored. Sky Angel continues to press its case. More recently, the Supreme Court confused the issue immensely by likening Aereo to an MVPD, even though absolutely nobody else agrees, a conundrum that helped drive Aereo into bankruptcy.

Telstra has invested directly in Elemental Technologies, leading a $14.5 million Series D round of funding joined by Sky, another Elemental customer that had previously invested in the vendor. Elemental said it will use the funds to accelerate worldwide growth and expand its suite of SDV solutions to support the whole of the IP video delivery chain.

Communications companies claim that applying Title II regulation to broadband would inevitably lead to up to $15 billion in regulatory fees being passed on to consumers. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who wrote the Internet Tax Freedom Act, says the claim is "baloney."